Deep Breath by Parviz Shahbazi (Iran, 2003, 82 min, 35 mm)

Synopsis:

In a rare cinematic vision of young urban Iran this sophisticated portrait of alienated youth (more than the title is a nod to Godard's Breathless), Kamran and Mansour spend their time "vagabonding" through Tehran, snatching cell phones, stealing cars, and driving aimlessly. After picking up a hitchhiker, a chatty student named Ayda, one man is consumed by the hope she gives him, the other yields to his overwhelming despair. Wry and bittersweet, Deep Breath is.
In Farsi w/English subtitles

Post-screening panel discussion with Shouleh Vatanabadi (NYU) and Godfrey Cheshire (Film Critic, NYC) 

Filmmaker’s Bio:

Parviz Shahbazi was born in 1962 in the province of Lorestan in south-western Iran. He completed his degree at the Tehran College for Film and TV in 1990. Shahbazi worked as assistant director to Jafar Panahi on The White Balloon, edited several films and directed twelve shorts, including Traveler from the South (1996) and Whisper (2000), before making his first feature film Deep Breath.

Festivals and Awards:

• Best Script, Fajr Film Festival, 2003
• Cannes Film Festival, 2003
• Thessaloniki Film Festival, 2003
• Vancouver Film Festival, 2003
• London Film Festival 2003
• Palm Springs Film Festival, 2004
• Philadelphia Film Festival, 2004
• UCLA Persian Film Festival, 2004
• San Francisco Film Festival, 2004

Reviews:

Deep Breath … represents a break with the kind of filmmaking that foreign viewers typically associate with Iranian cinema. Instead of pastoral lyricism or poetic neorealism, these films focus on the pleasures and displeasures of everyday urban life.
—www.parstimes.com

Deep Breath is not a movie; it's a rock ‘n’ roll song. It's a perfectly – let me repeat, perfectly – tangible narrative of the gray side of life in Tehran.
— Farrokh Soltani, www.tehranavenue.com

Print Source:

Behnegar
78 Eastt Motahari Ave.
Tehran 15667 IRAN
Phone: (98-21) 841 0585 
Fax: (98-21) 206 1137
Email: festivals@behnegar.com